Revelations {Padril's Apartment}

[Aethie White]

"You don't get it," Aethie snapped, jumping down from the counter and moving out of Padril's reach. "You think I want you to do this because you think you have to? Padril, I get that this is huge, and life-changing, and...crazy! I know that! But I don't want you to 'support' me just because it's the right fucking thing to do! If you don't want to do this, then I don't want you to. I want you to do this because you want to. So if you don't, then DON'T."

It was the first time Aethie had ever used the F-word in front of another person; it was a mark of the seriousness of the situation. She reluctantly looked up into Padril's eyes, and seeing all the emotions there, realized that he needed comfort too. I'm an asshole. She stepped forwards and pulled him into a tight hug, pressing her lips firmly against his. If this was the last time she was ever going to kiss him, might as well make it memorable.

[Padril Crennent]

Padril sat on the counter and took Aethie's abuse, "Aethie, I..." Then suddenly she was kissing him. He kissed back, trying to pour everything into that single kiss, feeling everything from that kiss. He made up his mind then and set himself on a course. The kiss ended but he kept holding her. "I want to be with you. We'll do this."

He gave her a happy, hopeful smile, trying not to think how his Sunday was ruined and how the potion was overcooked but still smelling sweetly of lavender. A latter thought occurred to him and he laughed out loud.

"Tim is going to love being an uncle."

[Aethie White]

Padril's abrupt about-face threw Aethie off-balance. "You...do?" She stepped back, her eyes going unfocused for a second as she digested what Padril was saying. In all the ways this had played out in her mind, she'd never imagined that Padril would actually want to be with her. She had imagined him yelling, storming out, insisting that it wasn't his, refusing to help her out...she'd imagined him being pissed off but agreeing to help out of some misguided sense of responsibility...she'd imagined everything being awkward between them...but she hadn't imagined that he'd...care.

Part of her didn't trust him; part of her insisted he was just telling her what she wanted to hear. She swayed slightly, unsure which side she should listen to. Padril wouldn't lie to you. He's not like that. With a sigh, she slung her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead against his. "I'm sorry." she murmured, keeping her eyes down.

[Padril Crennent]

Padril smiled, as if sympathetically. But he just liked being right. Easy Padril he reminded himself. Don't let that asshole out. The smile became a true sympathetic smile and he spoke softly back to her. "It's fine, it's fine. Everything will be all right." He had to be reassuring, he had to be calm. He could freak out later, but he had made his choice and felt confident with it. They could do this. They would roll with the punches.

He moved his arms around her again into a hug, trying to constantly reassure her.

[Aethie White]

"Oh shut up, it's not fine...you know it's not." Aethie smiled a little as she said it, so Padril would know she was kidding. She didn't want to talk about this right now; what she wanted, what she needed...as bad as it sounded...was a distraction. A physical distraction.

"Just...kiss me. Or something." she murmured, shaking her head a little to clear out the cobwebs.

[Padril Crennent]

Padril, a bit surprised, was only too happy to oblige. He hopped off the counter, pulling Aethie into a deep, passionate kiss as he did so. His hug became less reassuring and more sexual as one hand went to her back and the other to her bottom. This felt more real to the playing they were doing before she told him of the child and was different to any kiss he'd ever been in before.

Quite frankly, it was terrifyingly wonderful.

[Aethie White]

Aethie let her mind wander as Padril kissed her, allowing her hands and body to do their own thing while she was off in her own little world.

She'd thought that telling Padril would make her feel better; would somehow erase all the knots in her stomach and make everything wonderful again. So why did she feel worse than ever? Was it just because she could sense, deep down, that Padril was freaking out more than she was? Aethie had always been insecure, everyone knew that...but this was more than that. There was a feeling, deep in her gut, that gave her a stomachache and made her want to cry. She just wanted to forget...if she hadn't been pregnant, she probably would have drank herself under the table by this point. But then again, if she hadn't been pregnant, she wouldn't be feeling like this in the first place.

Padril's hand on her backside brought Aethie abruptly back to earth, and suddenly, a different feeling swooped over her, a feeling that could only be described as exhilaration. It was like when you jump off a diving board; that endless second of free-fall when your stomach is in your throat and you can feel the blood whooshing through every single, tiny capillary in your body. She felt...alive.

As her hands began opening the buttons of Padril's shirt, she finally stopped thinking - something she'd wanted to do since she'd woken up that morning.

[Padril Crennent]

-A While Later-

Padril was smiling contently, leaning upright against a stack of pillows on the bed. He had an arm around Aethie, who was dozing with her head resting on his chest. The room was now intoxicating with the smell of lavender and the scent of the late afternoon and made it quite easy for the mind to doze. Padril, however, refused to allow this to happen. He was thinking, making plans.

He would need a full-time job. He'd try the Prophet, so he could keep doing what he loved. He needed a bigger and better apartment, so he and Aethie could move in together eventually. He could get a loan from Harley or Jaden, he supposed. And he really needed to talk with his Dad. He needed to know what to expect.

For now though, he was happy with his lot in life. They would inevitably still be alive at the end of the day and that was really the only thing that mattered. He kissed Aethie's forehead gently, eyes looking over her body appreciatively. He hadn't seen her naked before today.

[Aethie White]

Aethie was dreaming. At first, the dream was light, pleasant...she was walking along the coast in Santorini, holding hands with Seraphim. They were talking and laughing, and Aethie felt at peace. Everything was as it should be.

Then the dream changed...as it always did...and Aethie was pulling her sister's lifeless body from the sea, screaming for help as she clumsily attempted CPR. But Seraphim was beyond help...she was gone...gone where Aethie could not follow.

She jolted awake, tears on her lashes, and for a startling moment, she didn't know where she was. She pushed away from Padril disorientedly, and only then realized that she was naked. Shame rushed over her, and she quickly pulled the sheet up to wrap herself in. "What...what time is it?" she asked groggily. The scent of lavender, which had been pleasant when she'd first arrived, was now slightly overpowering. She wrinkled her nose a little against the smell.

[Padril Crennent]

Aethie had begun to murmur in her sleep and Padril had begun to get worried. She stirred quickly though with something that shined on her eyelashes (Tears, Padril thought[/i]), pulled the sheet up, asked what the time was and wrinkled her nose. At the heavy stench of lavender, Padril thought, though though there was nothing he could do without his wand, which could be anywhere at the moment.

He wondered whether he should question Aethie on her dream but decided against it. They had emotionally traumatic confrontations for the day, he would talk to her about it later.

"Don't know," he told her. "Three-ish, four-ish? Did you need to be somewhere?" He was torn about whether he wanted her to stay the night or leave. If she stayed they could talk throughout the night and plan. But they both needed some time to collect their thoughts and some personal space. He was in the mood for a good fly, then seeing Tim, Jaden or Harley later to talk.

But like the obedient boyfriend, he would wait for her to make her choice and be happy no matter what. At the end of the day it didn't seem to matter either way.

[Aethie White]

"No," she said, securing the sheet firmly under her arms and raising herself up onto her elbows. "I've got the day off...unless...did you want me to...?" she left the question unanswered as she looked up at him. "I just think we should, you know, talk about this whole...thing." She stopped, unsure of how to continue. This was completely foreign territory for Aethie.

"I just, I mean, you don't want to like...get married or anything, do you?" The last few words came out almost as a squeak as Aethie's voice grew progressively higher. This was something that had been worrying her almost as much as what her father would say when she told him. It wasn't that Aethie didn't care about Padril, or want to be with him - but she knew she wasn't anywhere near ready for marriage. Just thinking about it made her heart skip a few beats, and her face flushed a little.

She dropped her gaze from Padril's eyes and focused on a tiny smear of lipgloss at the corner of his mouth. Tenderly, almost with realizing what she was doing, she reached up and smoothed it away.

[Padril Crennent]

"That was the clumsiest proposal ever," Padril said with a roguish grin. "But seriously, we are too young and too good-looking for marriage. We don't even really know each other. I don't even know what Aethie is short for, I haven't met your parents, you haven't met mine, we don't even share an apartment. I don't know all of your hopes and dreams and you don't know mine. Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean we should rush things." He had decided on this while partially dozing and had organized a dozen explanations for the likely questions. He was hastily making preparations to see them through this.

He get smiling at her in a smooth, reliable and absolutely infatuated manner while she rubbed the lip gloss away. Aethie seemed to want some sort of physical contact, so he began to stroke her hair. "We haven't watched the sun set. We haven't shared secrets. We haven't gone on holiday."

[Aethie White]

Aethie felt herself melting into a warm little puddle at Padril's words. God, no wonder he was such a great writer. "It's short for Aethionema," she said, leaning into the caress of his hand on her hair like a cat. "It's a kind of flower. My mum is big on gardening. My younger sister - she coined the nickname Aethie. I called her Phimie - her name was Seraphim - we did it mostly just to piss off our parents, I think."

A soft chuckle escaped Aethie's throat as she tucked her long hair gracefully behind her ear. How strange that it seemed easy to bring up Seraphim in casual conversation, when she'd spent her whole life striving to avoid the topic altogether. "And that's one of my secrets. Your turn," she said playfully, sitting up slightly and turning to face him.

[Padril Crennent]

Padril hadn't planned on blurting all his secrets to Aethie, his secret love for Jaden for example, but decided to stay with the romance of the situation. "You know Harley? Best friend Harley?" He was certain Aethie would of heard of him, he was pretty popular. "He first met me behind a bike shed in Brisbane. There were kids who beating me. First because I was smarter than them, then because I kept insulting them while I was being beaten. Then Harley came and pretty much saved my life." He seemed to become a bit somber, "If I had been a muggle I wouldn't of recovered. But it was embarrassing, needing someone else to save me like that."

That was a bit deeper and more emotional than he had planned, so he suddenly brightened and said happily, "Your turn." But inside, his stomach turned. He hadn't seen Harley in ages and he owed him so much. He had hated Harley for going out with Jaden and then leaving her but now...now he realized just how much he owed him.

[Aethie White]

Aethie reached for Padril's hand and laced her fingers through his. She'd never before considered the possibility that Padril had been one of those kids that everyone else picked on. It was interesting, how learning about someone else's past gave them all kinds of depth that you never expected.

"My sister died when I was twelve," she said in a low voice. Her throat threatened to close up as she said it, and part of her was surprised that she had even managed to get the words out. "She drowned...I was the only one with her at the time." She glanced up at Padril for a short second, but was unable to keep his gaze. A smile flickered lightly across her face as she looked up at the ceiling. "I still don't really ever talk about it with anyone. In fact, you're only the second person I've ever told."

This was only half-true; yes, Aethie had shared the fact that she had a dead sister with Jaden, but she hadn't shared the details of Seraphim's death. That had seemed too...personal, especially considering her and Jaden had barely gone from enemies to friends a few moments earlier. "It was really hard on me for a long time. I blamed myself, even though...there was a riptide. She got pulled out, there was nothing I could have done, no way I could have known. But I always kind of thought, why her and not me?"

This was the most vulnerable Aethie had ever made herself to anyone. Her heart was beginning to speed up with the telltale signs of panic. She forced herself to stay where she was, with Padril, even though most of her wanted to run and never look back. Aethie had never been very good at opening up to other people.